Idora Park was an amusement park also known as "Youngstown's Million Dollar Playground". The park was added to the National Registry of Historic Places on September 13, 1993. The park was named after a contest held by the Youngstown Vindicator. The name "Idora" is a combination of the words "I" and "adore". The park was originally called Terminal park though the name was soon changed to Idora Park on November 25, 1899. The park encompassed 30 acres.
In the mid-1890s streetcar companies across America looked for ways to increase ridership in the evenings and on the weekends when the regular commuter traffic slacked off. Their solution was to tap into the thirst for popular amusements that had swept across America following the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago by building amusement parks at the distant ends of their trolley lines.
Locally, the Youngtown Park & Falls Street Railway Company held the franchise for routes south of the Mahoning River and it decided to build an amusement park in the largely undeveloped south side of Youngstown. Access was helped greatly by the opening of the new Market Street viaduct on May 22, 1899
Idora Park opened on Decoration Day on May 30, 1899 and was an immediate success. Ideally located adjacent to Mill Creek Park and sufficiently far from the smoke and dirt of the mills that lined the Mahoning River, the new park was about 3.5 miles from Youngtown's Central Square and far enough to convince most people to pay a nickel and ride the streetcar to the park rather than walk. The park was located at the end of the trolley line and was a popular destination for familes on weekends.
Idora Park offered a dance pavilion, vaudeville theatre, bandstand, swings, drinking fountains, picnic tables, refreshment stands and a carousel with 48 carved wooden horses including 30 "jumpers", 18 "standers", two chariots and a Gebruder Bruder Band Organ that provided the carousel's music. No admission was charged, though visitors had to pay for food, rides and other entertainments.
The park offered an entertainment alternative to the working-class saloons and Youngtown's more upscale opera house. One did not need to know English to enjoy most of the attractions and the thousands of immigrants who came to Youngstown in the early 20th century could enjoy Idora with fear of a language barrier.
In Idora Park built its first roller coaster, a figure-eight toboggan slide, the first of three coasters constructed in approximately the same location on the western edge of the park. This coaster would be replaced by the Firefly in the 1920s and then by the famous Wildcat. In 1914 a second coaster, Dip-the-Dips, built by the T. M. Harton Company of Pittsburgh opened in the park's southeast corner. It would be remodeled in the mid-1920s and renamed the Jack Rabbit.
Idora Park Dance Hall
Dancing at the Idora was so popular that after a decade a larger building had to be constructed. The new Idora Ballroom designed by Angus Wade, a noted Philadelphia architect opened in 1910. The Youngstown Telegram reported that the dance floor measured 238 feet by 96 feet, larger than the pavilion at Coney Island. Music of all types played a significant role in Idora Park's history and the park's success was due in part to its policy of booking top attractions. John Philip Sousa played at Idora in 1918 and by the end of the Big Band era of the 1930s to the 1950s, virtually every significant dance orchestra in America had played at Idora Park including Cab Calloway, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman and Guy Lombardo. The ballroom was remodeled in 1955-1956. The ornate Moorish towers were removed from the exterior and the interior featured a new dropped ceiling and indirect lighting.
In the 1950s and 1960s tastes shifted from Big Band to Rock and Roll. Dan Ryan of WBBW radio introduced record hops to Idora in 1953. Live music was not abandoned, however, and the park continued to book national acts such as the Eagles, the Monkees, Bobby Rydell, Bobby Sherman and many others. Polka bands also drew huge crowds to Idora.
Labor Day, September 3, 1984 was the last time the park was open to the public. The rides operated for the final time on September 8 for a St. Elizabeth Hospital employees private picnic and on October 20-21, 1984 an auction was held to dispose of the rides and equipment.
Enter David 🎠 Jane Walentas
On October 21, 1984 David and Jane Walentas purchased the carousel for $375,000. Over many decades they completed the restoration and named it Jane's Carousel. Jane led the restoration from her studio in DUMBO* and spent several years hand-scraping old paint, repairing the carpentry making sure it was brought back to its original state. Once Jane was done, she gifted the restored carousel to Brooklyn Bridge Park.
*Dumbo or DUMBO in New York is a neighborhood in the Brooklyn Borough. Dumbo is short for "Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass". It perfectly describes where this creative neighborhood is located. Dumbo in Brooklyn is known for its many art galleries, coffee shops and cobblestone streets.
Jane's Carousel resides at 1 Old Dock Street in New York City along the East River in Brooklyn Bridge Park. The carousel was built in 1922 by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company for Idora Park.
Building that houses the carousel
was designed
by
French architect, Jean Nouvel.
Opening Day September 16, 2011
Brooklyn Bridge Park is located, as the name suggests, under Brooklyn Bridge. The park is known for its gardens, footpaths along the river.
Most noteworthy are the breathtaking views of Manhattan.
Jane's Restored Carousel
Jane Walentas was an artist, philanthropist and former art director for Clinque who dedicated herself for more than two decades to restoring this historic carousel and securing its home at Brooklyn Bridge Park in Dumbo, the former industrial area she and her husband, David developed and transformed into a flourishing neighborhood.
Folk artist, Jane Walentas and a team of artists carefully restored
Jane's Carousel and brought it back to its former glory.
May 7, 2022 marked the first annual "Jane's Carousel Day".
A celebration of the carousel's 100th birthday.
Walentas, a fixture in the Brooklyn art scene whose family took a starring role in developing the waterfront, bought the carousel at auction.
Mayor Eric Adams proclaimed the first-ever "Jane's Carousel Day" which celebrated the carousel's 100th birthday and honored the life of Jane Walentas. Mayor Adams was joined on Jane's Carousel Dayby Walentas' son, Jed the owner of the development company that transformed much of the waterfront and musical guests as they celebrated Jane and her carousel.
She was an art director herself, studied art, art direction, all that, so I think she thought she could do this on her own. I was probably one of the first people she hired back after a long pause where she picked up the project again and started working seriously into wanting to complete it.
Fiona Westphal, one of the artists Jane hired from NY University who helped with the delicate and time-consuming carousel repair work.
Westphal, an artist who works mostly in art fabrication and restoration was living in a building managed by Valentas' husband, David when she got a flier in the monthly rent collection envelope seeking artists to help Jane with the carousel. The timing was perfect as Westphal had recently lost her job at a foundry and was lookng for work. The project fit her skill set. She called Walentas who invited her to visit the studio. Westphal recalled helping Walentas gently scraping layers of paint so she could catalog each one.
I went there and I saw the horses and instantly fell in love with it. The carvings were gorgeous, the colors and expressions. And Jane was just lovely as she always was, really warm and welcoming, talking about the carousel. I was like, whatever you want me to do, I'll do it. The carousel hadn't been well-maintained at the amusement park and it was exciting to slowly reveal the vibrant original colors.
The primo job was painting the horses, but, of course, not everyone could do that. And before they could be painted, years of caked-on layers of old paint had to be removed. I actually lucked out, I did the stenciling, I did the gold-leafing with Jane and I also helped her create new stencils. Mainly, the day was carefully stenciling. We would come in, she used the finest paints,, the finest brushes, we quietly sat there in this zen atmosphere where we were all doing it. She really wanted it to be perfect. Every single one of us took it so seriously and sat there quietly, just really trying to get it done so that we were proud of every single little piece of this carousel.
Kate Clark, another member of the restoration team
Jane's passion for the carousel project influenced the whole team.
Clark's work on the project seemed almost destined as her father-in-law had been in seminary in Ohio during the carousel's first life in the midwestern theme park and had ridden on it. He came to visit the studio during the restoration bringing everything "full circle".
Walentas was serious about the carousel, but never let that get in the way of caring for the team. Westphal, Clark and the rest of the artists were involved in every decision, big or small.
I think it was a special time in my life as well, working on this project. She was just a wonderful person, really embraced everyone who worked for her.
We almost became like the carousel family.
Fiona Westphal
After restoration was finished, the carousel sat uninstalled for some time as the plans for developing what would become Brooklyn Bridge Park changed. Finally, in 2009, the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation accepted the carousel as a gift from Walentas and her husband, along with a $3.5 million donation for the park. Jane's Carousel was installed inside a glass structure in 2011, becoming a beacon in the park and a destination for visitors. The following year, Hurricane Sandy sent scores of floodwaters across the city, damaging the carousel as waves batterd its glass house.
I texted her (that night) and she texted me right back, "it survived". Everybody was so worried and it was so wonderful that she was there watching and letting us know, all our hearts were so involved.
Kate Clark
Even now, some of the artists are still involved. Christan Fagerlund, who had the coveted job of painting the carousel horses, recently spent days in the city on a special visit to make some touch-ups to their colorful exteriors. Safely inside a weather-resistant new home, the carousel carries about a million riders per year. Some of whom will get to ride for free on Jane's Carousel Day which falls just a day after Walentas' own birthday.
She was great at celebrating birthdays too, inviting people, thinking of people .. a wonderful, wonderful person, a wonderful spirit. And a hard worker, she worked hard on that carousel, harder than anyone else, i think, which I always admired.
Fiona Westphal
It was just an incredible experience all around, getting to work on the carousel, being in that community, working with Jane. And then having it now last all these years. In September, I took eight neighborhood kids and my daughter and her friend to the carousel. We had a great day with these kids who had never been to Dumbo at all, even though we live one bus ride away. We rode the carousel, we threw rocks in the water, we played, we got pizza, we got ice cream. We had a great day.
Kate Clark
Thank you, Jane.
(1944-2020)
The story of one woman's remarkable 25 year odyssey to restore a beloved carousel.
She lived her dream for the enjoyment of others.
RIP
Jane Walentas was a woman of many layers. She was an accomplished artist whose quiet, thoughtful manner disguised an inner core of grit and determination. When she passed on July 5, 2020 in her Southhampton, New York home, she passed on a legacy as a discerning philanthropist who made it possible for others to achieve success and experience the exhilarating beauty of art.
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